Dependence of Kinetic Plasma Turbulence on Plasma beta

TL;DR

This study investigates how plasma beta influences kinetic plasma turbulence evolution, revealing systematic effects on spectra, intermittency, decay rates, and energy partitioning through particle-in-cell simulations.

Contribution

It is the first to systematically analyze plasma beta's impact on turbulence characteristics using fully kinetic simulations.

Findings

Higher plasma beta increases total heating.

Protons are heated more than electrons at higher beta.

Turbulence decay rates vary with plasma beta.

Abstract

We study the effects of plasma \b{eta} (ratio of plasma pressure to magnetic pressure) on the evolution of kinetic plasma turbulence using fully kinetic particle-in-cell simulations of decaying turbulence. We find that the plasma \b{eta} systematically affects spectra, measures of intermittency, decay rates of turbulence fluctuations, and partitioning over different channels of energy exchange More specifically, an increase in plasma \b{eta} leads to greater total heating, with proton heating preferentially more than electrons. Implications for achieving magnetosheath like temperature ratios are discussed.